A study in Social Science Quarterly profiled on the Today show suggests that giving kids unusual names can lead them to bad behavior and eventual jail time. The study explains that unusual names lead to low self-esteem, which lead to delinquency, saying "having an unusual first name leads to unfavorable reactions in others, which then leads to unfavorable evaluations of the self."

taffimai: reminds me of an old Borscht Belt joke: one old guy walks up to another one and says, "Shapiro! You look terrible! You lost your hair, your teeth fell out, you're all hunched over three inches shorter..."The other guy says, "You've got me mixed up with someone else, my name is Solly Goldberg.""Gevalt! And you changed your name too!"

It's almost like...the Invasion of the Reverse Body-Snatchers! Or Anti-Capgras Syndrome!

I'm sure an unusual name is more often gifted by parents that are most unusual, and both the name and the genetics encourage non-conformity (though the name probably has a lot less impact than the fact the parents are likely non-conformists as well) - aka naturally non-conformist parents raising a child with a non-conformist names child in a non-coformist household will produce non-conformist adults (*gasp* - so unexpected!). As with many sociological studies, this one seems to be very 'fluffy' as far as the actual science goes. I'd be confortable calling this one hogwash.

As for me (a lifelong non-conformist), I'd not only give my children names that are guaranted to be unique in human record, I'd give them four names. As a amateur genealogist, I'd thank myself profusely. After trying to sort out all the colonial Sarah Clarks in my family tree for a hundred hours or more (apparently at one point Sarah Clark was the most popular name in Virginia, in some counties approaching double digit percentages of women), I'd NEVER give my children a common name.

If it makes you feel any better for the sake of your kids, my name is one of the most common ones you'll ever find, especially in my age group, and I've always been a delinquent little snot. In fact I hate my name and have been actively looking for a replacement for many years, to no avail.

The study's methodology left out the names of immigrant kids, who get the "disadvantage" of coming from different cultures and having to learn English on top of their woefully non-WASP names. As long as we're trading in stereotypes, how would these nimrods explain the "industrious immigrant"? And did they control for any other factors thought to contribute to delinquency? Gah, this is stupid.

So, you know, speaking as someone with a "foreign" name that people have mispronounced most of my life...shut up, dude. No, really.

First names are mostly a class thing in Australia, but there was a recent study of surnames saying that someone with an Italian surname on their resume got 12% fewer interviews than someone with an Anglo name, all the way up to people with Vietnamese names getting 48% fewer interviews. They were confused by the results with Greek surnames, but it turned out that people with long Greek surnames were discriminated against but those with short Greek surnames were not.